1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk laminate and a disk cartridge, and more particularly to a disk laminate in which plural thin disks are laminated and a disk cartridge in which the disk laminate is stored. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a disk loading/unloading mechanism and a disk conveying device, and more particularly to a disk loading/unloading mechanism for loading/unloading thin disks into and from a disk cartridge, and a disk conveying device including the disk loading/unloading mechanism. Furthermore, the present invention relates to a disk conveying mechanism and a thin disk driving system, and more particularly to a disk conveying mechanism for conveying thin disks and a thin disk driving system including the disk conveying mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years and continuing, as computers are handling increasingly high-volume information, there is growing demand for storage devices having larger capacity for storing high-volume information. Examples of storage devices are primarily hard disks, disk-type storage media such as optical disks, and tape-type storage media such as magnetic tape.
The total area of the recording region of a disk-type storage medium is smaller than that of a tape-type storage medium. Thus, if the recording density is the same, it is difficult to make the recording capacity per disk cartridge larger than that of the recording capacity per tape cartridge.
Accordingly, there have been proposals of storing multiple disks in a disk cartridge.
For example, patent document 1 discloses a magnetic disk cartridge that stores plural magnetic disk media in a housing.
Furthermore, patent document 2 discloses a recording disk cartridge in which plural flexible recording disk media are stored in a cartridge case so as to be integrally rotatable.
Furthermore, patent document 3 discloses a disk cartridge that stores multiple optical disks, and an optical disk recording/reproducing device that unloads an optical disk from the disk cartridge, performs recording/reproducing, and then returns the optical disk to the disk cartridge.
However, with the disk cartridges disclosed in patent documents 1 and 2 and the disk cartridge of the optical disk recording/reproducing device disclosed in patent document 3, the recording capacity per disk cartridge cannot be significantly increased.
Another means proposed for solving the above-described problem is to use optical disks having a thickness of approximately 0.1 mm through 0.3 mm (hereinafter, also referred to as “thin optical disks”). Multiple thin optical disks are stored in a single disk cartridge, so that the recording capacity is increased.
For example, patent document 4 discloses a cartridge for information recording media having the following features. Plural thin information recording media and one or more partition plates are laminated and stored in an unfixed state (the media and plates are not fixed to each other). At the edge portion of each partition plate, there is formed a unique tab corresponding to the storage position. By accessing the tabs, it is possible to access the partition plates at the respective storage positions.
Furthermore, patent document 1 discloses an optical disk recording/reproducing device for unloading an optical disk from a cartridge storing multiple sheet-type optical disks and for recording or reproducing data, and a disk autochanger for conveying the cartridge to a plurality of these optical disk recording/reproducing devices, unloading optical disks, and recording/reproducing data.
Furthermore, patent document 5 discloses a recording/reproducing device for recording or reproducing information of plural optical disks, which includes laminated trays in which plural optical disks are laminated and stored in a compact manner; and a mechanism device for loading/conveying optical disks from the laminated trays to a plurality of the recording/reproducing devices.
The following discusses the operations of returning conventional optical disks (hereinafter, simply referred to as “conventional disks” as a matter of convenience) such as CDs (compact discs) and DVDs (digital versatile discs) from drive devices to disk cartridges.
When a conventional disk is unloaded from a tray of a drive device (drive tray), the positional shift of the conventional disk is very small. This is because the wall of the drive tray is tapered, and therefore the conventional disk is placed at a predetermined position of the drive tray.
When a conventional disk is placed on the tray (disk tray) of the disk cartridge, the conventional disk falls from the disk tray along a tapered wall of the disk tray, so that the conventional disk lands at a predetermined position by gravity.
Next, the following discusses the operation of returning the thin optical disk from the drive device to the disk cartridge.
When the thin optical disk is unloaded from the drive tray, the thin optical disk is lighter than a conventional disk, and therefore even if the wall of the drive tray is tapered, the thin optical disk is placed at a position displaced from the predetermined position of the drive tray, and the thin optical disk may be unloaded in the displaced state. That is to say, the thin optical disk may be conveyed in a state where the center is displaced.
When the thin optical disk is loaded to the disk tray, the thin optical disk is lighter than the conventional disk, and therefore even if the wall of the drive tray is tapered, the thin optical disk may be conveyed with its center displaced, and may not be able to land in the predetermined position of the disk tray by gravity. That is to say, the thin optical disk may not be properly placed on the disk tray, and consequently it may not be possible to put the disk tray in the disk cartridge.
Furthermore, patent document 4 discloses a cartridge for storing plural thin information recording media, a method of loading the information recording medium stored in the cartridge, and a recording/reproducing device including the loading mechanism.
However, with the cartridge and conveying mechanism disclosed in patent documents 1 and 4, only one or two optical disks can be used simultaneously.
One approach is to use plural drive devices. However, a flexible thin disk has low rigidity, and is thus difficult to handle and convey. Therefore, it takes a long time to convey plural thin optical disks to plural drive devices.
Furthermore, patent document 5 discloses a mechanism device with which trays are opened at once to reduce the conveying time. However, this mechanism requires multiple suction tweezers, and consequently the overall size of the device needs to be increased.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-22011    Patent Document 2: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2006-79786    Patent Document 3: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-287242    Patent Document 4: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-12201    Patent Document 5: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-238258